Getting the http Request Parameters in a Servlet

Introduction

The implicit HttpServlet interface comes with two methods which must be implemented. These are doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res) and doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res). The example below shows how to get both.

// See also The HttpServlet
// This method is called by the servlet container to process a GET request.
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException {
doGetOrPost(req, resp);
}
// This method is called by the servlet container to process a POST request.
public void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException {
doGetOrPost(req, resp);
}
// This method handles both GET and POST requests.
private void doGetOrPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException {
// Get the value of a request parameter; the name is case-sensitive
String name = "param";
String value = req.getParameter(name);
if (value == null) {
// The request parameter 'param' was not present in the query string
// e.g. http://hostname.com?a=b
} else if ("".equals(value)) {
// The request parameter 'param' was
// present in the query string but has no
// value
// e.g. http://hostname.com?param=&a=b
}
// The following generates a page showing all
// the request parameters
PrintWriter out = resp.getWriter();
resp.setContentType("text/plain");
// Get the values of all request parameters
Enumeration enum = req.getParameterNames();
for (; enum.hasMoreElements(); ) {
// Get the name of the request parameter
name = (String)enum.nextElement();
out.println(name);
// Get the value of the request parameter
value = req.getParameter(name);
// If the request parameter can appear
// more than once in the query string,
// get all values
String[] values =
req.getParameterValues(name);
for (int i=0; i<values.length; i++) {
out.println(" "+values[i]);
}
}
out.close();
}